It’s really hard to make progress when your voice is de-legitimized because of the color of your skin. Racial classification is an artificial cultural construct. If you are a victim of racial prejudice, I understand, it is hard to swallow that “race” is not based in any biological truth. Racism is a reality, but it is a reality that is elimiated when we stop believing in it. This includes “I don’t listen to white people,” or, “I don’t respect the priviledged position of white people regarding their assumptions about racism.”

Less than 10 years after the end of Jim Crow, Federal and State legislatures enacted the Controlled Substances Act, which has been used to dis-proportionately effect poor people, and specifically, to target people with dark skin. This racist Act of legislation is still in full swing in the U.S., and it is the reason for why the police are waging a war on the citizens of the U.S. It is the reason behind the prejudice that causes a police officer to shoot a young African-American youth.

But “white people” are not the only ones that support racist legislation like the Controlled Substances Act. “Black people” do too, and that is a major problem. I’m looking at you, Churches, with voters than continue to vote for the leaders that cast heavy burdens onto the shoulders of others.

Racism constinues to exist because racist habits of thoughts are perpetuated by people of ALL skin types. Just because you have been the victim of racial prejudice, this does not mean that you do not promote racist habits of thought. It’s an abusive cycle, and the absued often take on the attributes of their abuser.

The only way to elimiate racist thoughts is to altogther STOP thinking, labeling, and calling people using color terms that are symbollic and not a reflection of reality.

We’ve all contributed to racist thoughts. This is because we are a part of a culture that continues to define things like “race” along arbitrary and superficial lines. We are immersed in it. It soaks us like stagnant, smelly water. We tolerate laws of discrimination. We elect leaders of discrimination. Or, we remain apathetic, disenfranchised, and we let the leaders of discrimination run their course.

We build this world. We change it by changing our minds first.

Ah, what am I doing? Many of your won’t respect my opinion simply because I am “white.” That’s a HUGE part of the problem. I am not a color, neither is ANYONE ELSE. We are ALL human.

And now, we charged with resisting and removing the habits of racist thoughts in our society. We must tear this down. We don’t tear it down by conforming to it. We tear it down by making it irrelevant.